A large bowl or cup in which wassail (sense 2) was made and from which healths were drunk; a loving-cup; also the liquor contained in the bowl.
1606. Sir G. Goosecappe, II. i. D 3 b. Hee is a most excellent Turner, and will turne you wassel-bowles, and posset Cuppes.
1608–9. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 179. Given to the maides which came with the wassell-boule, xijd.
1610. Fletcher, Faithf. Shepherdess, V. i. Some neere towne,… Hath drawne them thether, bout some lusty sport; Or spiced wassal Boule.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Country Life, 56. Thy Wassaile bowle, That’s tost up after Fox i’ th’ Hole…; thy Christmas revellings.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 26 Dec. We went into an alehouse and there … a washeall-bowle woman and girle came to us and sung to us.
1686–7. Aubrey, Rem. Gentilism & Judaism (1881), 40. They goe into the Ox-house to the oxen, with the Wassell-bowle and drink to the ox w. the crumpled horne that treads out the corne.
1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq., xvi. 195. Young Women went about with a Wassail-bowl, that is, a Bowl of spiced Ale on New Year’s Eve.
1808. Scott, Marmion, I. xv. A mighty wassail-bowl he took, And crown’d it high in wine.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk. (1849), 287. A huge silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship … the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in Christmas festivity. Ibid., 288, note. The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; with nutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs.
1860. G. P. Morris, Poems (ed. 15), 178. Some love to stroll where the wassail-boul And the wine-cups circle free.
